Taiwan mops up after deadly storm

Nari left 32 inches (810 mm) of rain in its wake since Sunday

TAIWAN, Taipei -- Taiwan on Wednesday was mopping up the damage brought by tropical storm Nari that killed 66 people and unloaded record amounts of rain.

Authorities were still searching for 23 people in the wake of the storm that turned roads in Taipei into torrents of water, flowing past second-story windows.

A further 158 were injured in Taipei's worst recorded case of flooding, Reuters news agency reported.

Most of the dead drowned in floods, were electrocuted by collapsed power lines or buried alive in mudslides triggered by the downpour.

Nari has caused an estimated $20 million in agricultural losses, inundating nearly 10,000 hectares of farmland island-wide, the cabinet's Council of Agriculture told Reuters. Fisheries, livestock and farm building have also been significantly affected.

Hundreds of thousands of commuters scrambled back to work on Wednesday, amid traffic chaos as Taipei's mass transit system was forced to close due to flooding.

Financial markets finally reopened only to see the TAIEX tumble 2.75 percent on opening.

Sentiment is expected to remain bearish for a while because of the storm damage and poor sentiment in U.S. markets.

Nari's devastation

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Taiwanese residents witnessed rivers of rainfall roaring down mountains, swamping many homes in Taipei's suburbs.

Some 8,000 people were forced to evacuate and more than 820,000 homes were left in the dark, emergency officials said.

Nari left 32 inches (810 mm) of rainfall in its wake since Sunday. The storm lost strength early Monday and was downgraded from a typhoon to a tropical storm.

The slow-moving storm lingered over the northern half of Taiwan for hours, saturating areas prone to landslides and testing river dikes.

Nari, named after a Korean flower, hit the island two months after Typhoon Toraji caused flash flooding and landslides that killed more than 100 people in eastern and central Taiwan.

Taiwan, a mountainous island of 23 million people, is one of the most densely populated places in the world. Many Taiwanese live or farm on mountain slopes that are prone to mudslides when soaked.

Reuters contributed to this report.